Baby Food of the Week – Cabbage

Cabbage is so nutritious for babies!

Before we talk about cabbage, I wanted to recap the last few weeks of Food of the Week. I am thoroughly enjoying focusing on green vegetables this month. I hope you’re learning some new little facts from these foods of the week. There is one thing that remains clear though, and that is that many green vegetables have the same nutrients (and in huge amounts!). They are what we call nutrient dense foods, as opposed to calorie dense foods. And while we don’t need to focus on calories with our babies, it’s important to find foods that have loads of nutrition per calorie vs empty calories. The easiest comparison I can think of is white rice cereal. Green vegetables are high in nutrients and low in calories, but are cruciferous so require some effort to digest. White rice cereal is high in calories, devoid of nutrients, and is so close to sugar your baby barely needs to digest it before absorbing it. See the difference? We want our babies full of nutrition, and the higher the nutrition per calorie, the better off they will be!

Let’s focus on cabbage for a minute though. We know that being green it is going to have loads of antioxidants. But what else does it have to offer?

Cabbage nutritional information:

Cabbage has high levels of Vitamin K, and Vitamin C (as with many green vegetables!)

The antioxidants in cabbage have lead to it being associated with reducing inflammation and protecting the bowels against cancer

Cabbage also contains B6, which is a nutrient that is required for healthy methylation processes (you want your baby’s methylation to be healthy!)

It contains a compound called sinigrin which is thought to help the body protect itself against cancer

Cabbage has also been shown to have a strong association with preventing type 2 diabetes!

Enjoying cabbage:

Two common ways that I eat cabbage is to use it in soups and stir fries. You can have it raw but this will be very difficult for your baby or toddler to digest (and may cause lots of wind too).

Cabbage is awesome to use when wanting to bulk out your meals a little bit. Second to potatoes, they are the cheapest vegetable available! Adding a bunch of steamed cabbage to your meals instead of cheap grains is a great way to stay healthy and have a full tummy!

One cup a day of cruciferous vegetables is a good serving size to aim for, even with babies and toddlers.

Cabbage is one of the foods like kale that is risky in large doses for people with thyroid issues (or sensitive systems)

Quick Cabbage

4 cups of cabbage, shredded

1 tbsp lemon juice

5 tbsp bone broth or vegetable broth

Step 1. Slice the cabbage into small pieces, and sprinkle with lemon juice

Step 2. Heat the broth in a pan

Step 3. Once the broth is warm and steaming, add cabbage and cover it (I use a pot lid)

Step 4. Saute for around 5 minutes

Step 5. Transfer to a bowl and share as a yummy side to your meal

Other options:

You can use raw (or partially cooked) cabbage instead of bread, making sandwiches, burgers or wraps

Add it to stir fries

Add steamed cabbage to your vegetable fritter or meatball mix

Wondering what to feed your baby?

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